


Pidge's peaceful times

by SeeASweetSmile



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Badass Pidge, Bully, Bullying, Gen, Mental violence, Pidge | Katie Holt-centric, Pre-Canon, Pre-Kerberos Mission, Shenanigans, Smart Pidge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 22:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16105085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeeASweetSmile/pseuds/SeeASweetSmile
Summary: Before Garrison Time. Pidge is harassed, insulted and sidelined by her classmates in middle school. But thanks to her superior intelligence, she puts together a plan to follow her lessons without spending all her time at school.





	Pidge's peaceful times

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, guys ! :)  
> Here, one of my story that I enjoyed so much to write !  
> It will be painful but I swear you won't regret this.  
> Hope you'll enjoy it !

Pidge gets a ball of paper behind her head when she is facing the board to solve a math problem. Stifled laughter rises in the air and the teacher, who is known to be severe towards everyone without exception, immediately raises his voice.  
  
“Mark ! Alexandra ! We don’t throw objects through the classroom !”  
  
“I wanted to aim the trash bin, sir !” Retorn the boy.  
  
“We just wanted to do a contest to find out who would put it in the trash first !”  
  
“Yes, that’s it !” Answer the teacher, arms crossed, who don’t believe them at all. “For the trouble, you’ll both have an hour of restraint tonight !”  
  
Both students moan and plead with the teacher because they have supposedly very important appointments at the end of the day. Pidge, on the other hand, finishes solving the equation, puts the chalk on the edge of the board, and returns to her place in silence. The teacher quickly passes beside her without thanking her for her efforts, too busy arguing with the other two idiots. She pinches her lips and curses them all internally.

* * *

Pidge keeps an impassive face at the whisperings she heards as she passes through the corridors.

“Hey psst ! Look, she’s the one everyone is talking about : the little nerd of the 9th grade.” A boy blows with a cupped hand to the side of his mouth.

“Seriously ? She doesn’t have the physique or the appearance of a nerd, however…” Replies his friend.

“Think again. Because she’s thoroughly in all that’s technology, astronomy, computers, video games… a real geek !”

“Ahah ! Too lame !” The second boy laughed.

“So much ! I could never go out with her ! It would be super weird !” The other shouted.

The brunette contracts her jaw briefly and narrows her amber eyes. She's mentally appealing to all the forces of her body not to turn around and stick her fist in their face, then she goes down the stairs to go take the air in the playground.

* * *

One afternoon, when Pidge is the only one to answer the teacher’s questions correctly, a pupil -blond, tidy up his things, get up with a softened air, and hold his backpack on his shoulder. This attracts the attention of the other students, who turn around and glance up at their comrade.  
  
“What are you doing, Corentin ?” Ask the teacher, also intrigued.  
  
“I’m off.” He declares tiredly. "It’s not that I don’t like your class, ma'am, but I don’t see the point of following a lesson if it’s always Miss-Know-It-All who answers the questions.”  
  
“He’s right.” Continue a brown hair girl. "With her superior tone, Katie makes us look like shit.”  
  
"What ?!” Pidge indignant, frowning.  
  
"To me, it’s her voice that I can’t stand anymore.” Say an another girl, made up excessively who is also standing and stows her notebooks.  
  
“Sorry ?!” Exclaimed Katie again.  
  
But none of the three students answers her. They leave the room wondering if they have to go in study room or if they are skip out the last hour of class. A silence as heavy as awkward falls in the classroom and on the shoulders of Pidge. The teacher sighs handsomely and knocks in her hands to draw her students’ attention to her and continue her technology lesson. Of course, she doesn’t utter any words comforting to the little genius of the class. 

* * *

Even in sports, when you have to make the teams, Pidge always is the last to be chosen. A subtle message to say "We don’t want you”.  
  
When the teacher orders everybody to warm up first by doing three rounds of the gym, he scolds her for it to go faster because everyone sprints in the first round and she is behind. Some idiots surpass her by discussing as if she wasn’t there :  
  
“Of course, when you work your brain more than your muscles, don’t expect to be strong in sports.”  
  
"Her big brain has to slow her down.”  
  
And then, after sneering, they accelerate their pace and pass in front of her.  
  
Pidge shakes her fists, mentally scream with all the insults she knows, and pushes a little more on her legs to double a few people. She may not have been the best at physical activity, but she was doing her best and she had acceptable scores : that was what she kept repeating to reassure herself. 

* * *

Pidge sighs when she enters the girls’ bathroom. Exhausted by her hard day that wasn’t over yet, she drops her bag which tumbles down her arm and crashes softly at his feet. She sits on the white throne at the same time as she lowers her pants and does her needs.  
The nose and the bottom of her face in her hands, she sighs again. She rubs her eyes to try to make fatigue disappear.  
  
“More than one hour…” She mumbled.  
  
She absently details the blue sky tiles and the black knuckles, before hearing the bathroom door open and footsteps echoing against the floor.  
  
She doesn’t pay much attention to it.

It’s only when she sees two perfectly manicured hands stealing her backpack from underneath the door, that Pidge reacts.  
  
“Hey !” She exclaims.  
  
She throws her toilet paper quickly into the bowl, pulls her clothes up to her waist and flushes the toilet. When she unlocks her door and tries to push it, it opens very slightly but closes immediately. She tries again with more strength, but the door slams her in the face. Hearing a sneer on the other side that is very close, Pidge understands that someone blocks the exit.  
  
“Let me go out !” She ordered, giving a shoulder shot in it.  
  
“Nope ! You didn’t say the password !” Resist the boy in an amused voice.  
  
She recognizes his voice : Corentin. It’s the blond with the jaded attitude. The one because of whom the bullying against her had begun by insulting her "nerd” in front of the whole class - which had indeed made fun of her that day.  
  
“Sooo ~ ? What do we have here ?” Humed one of the girls, whom she also recognizes as Barabara, who is also in her class.

“A chemistry notebook, a tech notebook, a math notebook, and oh ! there’s even a novel that comes from LRC !” Dictates the voice of Alexandra, another girl in her class.  
  
Along with the enumeration of her affairs, the brunette hears a squealing cock and water flowing into the sink. She opens her eyes, feels her stomach looping and her heart misses a beat as the three idiots’s plans click into her mind.  
  
“No ! Stop !” She cries, panicked.  
  
She knocks on the door with her fist, tries to smash the entrance again, but her classmates don’t listen to her and chuckle at their joke. It was a frame-up.

“So, what’s the use of your brain, now ?” Corentin asks shamelessly.

The sound of the water flowing over the porcelain is toned down when one of the girls quietly stalls one of her notebooks open in the sink.

“No ! Please !” Plead Pidge, whose heartbeat continues to accelerate by imagining her pages take water.

“Relax, Einstein. We help you for the sake of the ecology. We may not have the intelligence of a horse like you, but we at least know that the pages of the books are made with trees, and that they are helped to grow by watering them. So indirectly, we take care of watering your plants. It’s not nice, that ?” Barbara chases proudly.

“We say "the memory of a horse” for your infomation !“ Corrects Pidge before knocking the door. "And let me out !”

She hears a clicking tongue and heels slam on the floor, a sign that one of the two girls is approaching the cabin in which she is locked.  
  
“You see ? That’s what we can’t stand in you, miss the genius ! Always take back others ! As if you knew everything better than everyone else !” Says Alexandra’s voice, which Pidge is sure her arms are crossed.  
  
“Yeah, you always make your innocent face but we know very well that you belittle us in your heart !”  
  
“It’s wrong !” Replies the brunette, frowning. “I have never looked down on you !”

Pidge tries to smash the door again with all her strength. The blonde slips a little but gets back very quickly and she was still stuck. Her efforts make Corentin chuckle. Then she hears a thud and understands that it’s one of her books that fell flat on the floor. Frustrated by her feeling of helplessness, she strikes the door with both fists and lowers her head, her two amber orbs shaking.  
  
“Here. The book of chemistry is done. Technology one, now.” Announce Barabara.  
  
“No ! I beg you !” Pleads once again Katie, eyelids hard shut.

But her supplications are useless. The three idiots laugh like hungers while continuing their  bad taste joke. A second book sprawls miserably on the ground. The water doesn’t have time to rest, since a third book is placed under its pipe. Distraught at this scene, a knot forms in Pidge’s throat. She swallows in order to make it disappear but without success.  
  
“Stop !!” She articulates with difficulty.  
  
“Hey ! Do you want me to tell you, Katie ? Dad and Mom should put in a specialized school where there are people like you. It would be a nice skewer of nerd ! And we would be much quieter !” Confess the blond.  
  
The mere mention of her parents touches a nerve and the brunette feels the hairs of her neck stand up.  
  
"Fuck you, Corentin ! You only have to be interested in lessons instead of being jaded all the time !” She replies in spite of her hoarse voice.  
  
“What did you say that ?!”  
  
Suddenly, a crash of the devil echoes in the bathroom and makes Pidge jump. What the…

"In case you wonder what it is, Miss-Know-It-All, it was your pencil case.” Informs Barabara.

"Cm'on, we fill her eraser and pencil sharpener with water. It can be funny.” Teasing Alexandra, while the other two endorse her idea.  
  
The two chicks giggle as they are doing their stupidity. The beep of a mobile phone bursts into the room, and a rustle of clothing is heard immediately after.  
  
"Who is it ?” Barabara asks, puzzled.  
  
"It’s Jack. He tells us that – shit !” Alexandra panicked.  
  
"What ?! What’s the matter ?!” Corentin asks.  
  
"The math teacher is going to pick up our homework and he’ll write it down !”  
  
“Crap ! It wasn’t planned, that !”  
  
“Quick ! We must find someone to copy the answers !”  
  
"Yeah, you’re right !”

And then, just like that, the three students go off at full speed. They desert the place without a further remark to her, and Pidge can finally evacuate the overflow of emotion she just had sighing heavily.  
  
But when she finally opens the door and gets out of her cabin, the crime scene in front of her makes her even more sick. One of her open books still sits in the sink and is quietly watered by the faucet. Her other notebooks, soaked too, lie on the floor in the middle of her pens, her soaked gum, her tube of glue, her compass, and her pencil sharpener that had indeed the tank filled with water. It looked like they had decorated a cake with colorful little balls scattered all over the place. Her backpack, now empty, is lying on his side a few meters away, wide open, as if he were also shocked at the sight of the horrible sight.  
  
Eyes wide open, she takes one step after another to reach the sink and softly closes the faucet. She grabs the porcelain edge, closes her eyelids, and tightens her grip with all her strength.

With her teeth clenched, she can not help but feel a sense of injustice and rage permeating her whole body. Why… ?! What did she do to deserve all this hate ?! Matt was right when he told him that geniuses were eternally misunderstood…  
  
Tears soon poured down her cheeks, as did the sobs echoing in the dreadfully empty bathroom.

It’s at this moment that Pidge made a decision : she was going to quit college. If she was to be with those morons who were just nagging her and the others who were making fun of her without moving, then she would rather stop school. There was not one to catch the other. And the adults were not much better; barely scolding those responsible and pretending to see nothing…  
  
For Pidge, who endured all this hazing and insults since she arrived during the year because she had skipped a year, it’s the last straw that broke the camel’s back.  
  
Her eyes still wet with tears, she washes her hands and does the best she can to collect her belongings and store them inside her backpack. It will also end up wet because of all this water but whatever. She will make everything dry naturally once she made at home.

Somewhere between her slow gestures and her bitterly bitten lips, part of her consciousness knows she’s going to skip the math lesson, but at this moment, she doesn’t care in the least.  
  
She dries her tears before returning home and locks herself in her room pretending to have a lot of homework and an important test of chemistry for the next day. She hears her mother and Matt wish her good luck, and her father tells her that with a brain like the Holts, she should be able to cope easily, which makes her smile slightly.  
  
But once her notebooks and books are scattered all over her desk so that they dry naturally, her pencil case opened across a corner of a page, a pen in her hand and the chin wedged between her fingers, it’s not up to chemistry equations she thinks.  
  
If she suddenly stops going to college, after a week, people would ask questions and she would have trouble with the stewardship. Who would necessarily call her parents for explanations and then she would be dead.  
  
But Pidge was smart and could solve a problem faster than anyone else - except maybe her big brother. She should play it more finely. And she knew exactly what to do… 

* * *

Her parents and Matt don’t suspect anything. Her bag on her back, she leaves in the morning thanking them when they wish her a good day in middle school, and she returns at night by hugging her family.  
  
In her bag, there are her notebooks and her pencil case, her lunch that her mother prepares from time to time with love for her, and a old hooded green sweatshirt stolen from Matt’s wardrobe.  
  
But Pidge doesn’t go to middle school. She makes a small detour of a few streets to avoid going past the establishment and she settles all day at the library to learn her lessons and do her homework.

She signs a few absences for good measure, ranging from simple flu to family problems, through the famous alarm clock breakdown. And this, imitating perfectly the signature of her parents. Sometimes it’s her mother’s who decorates the little bits of pink paper. Sometimes it’s her father’s. She also makes an attestation for her absence on the pretext of the factitious death of her dog Bae Bae, which affects her particularly. She earns two weeks thanks to that. Although Pidge is sometimes reprimanded for her absences, the supervisors and the CPE don’t hold much rigor and don’t discover her false papers. This is one of the only benefits to being considered a gifted student.  
  
When she goes outside to go to the library, she takes care to put on her green sweatshirt and hide her head with the hood. Sometimes, some students skip up to hang out in town, unlike her, who skip in order to continue studying peacefully. From what her classmates say -those who still talk very loudly across the room about what they’re going to do at noon, she learns that one of the groups will often eat in the fast-food restaurants that are in the neighborhood.  
And for Pidge, whether in the streets of the city or near restorations, no way to be spotted. The management would then be informed and her hell would start again, because she would be forced to return to middle school and be under surveillance. Before going home, one block away, she pulls off her sweater and stuffs it into her backpack.

When her dad wants to know how her lessons have been, she responds positively. She even adds from time to time a few anecdotes freshly imagined from her brain, such as the praise of a teacher for her good answers, the practice of the fire alarm that interrupted the English lessons, or the fuss that there was in the cafeteria because of the influx of students because it was “steak-fries” on the menu.  
  
Twice in five, when she has to eat the meals that her mother kindly prepared for her the day before, she knows very well that she doesn’t have the right to nibble inside the library. So she goes out, sits in a little park where hardly anyone comes, except perhaps two-three parents and their children so that they climb on the games made available, and eat quietly her food.  
  
When Pidge has to eat in the cafeteria, she goes without saying a word because her parents pay for the canteen so that she has complete and balanced meals instead of ordinary sandwiches, and she can’t bear to throw them away bills through the windows because of her. Maybe they both had good pay, but that was no reason to waste money. 

* * *

Once a week, on Friday, she goes quickly to the LRC after classes, knowing that there are not many people who are still in the evening and that nobody is likely to spy on it.  
  
Sitting at the table farthest from the exit -but also the attention of the leader, she takes out her own little laptop and then hacks the computer network of the middle school. She corrects the absences file of her class in order to reduce the number of absences for which she doesn’t give absence tickets. The number of slips in her notebook are not limited, and she’s coming to the end soon. So, just for the sake of precaution, she allows herself to do that.  
  
It’s a breeze for Pidge, who always remains an olympian calm during her operations. She is very meticulous in her typing operations once she enters the private school system. Her real IP address is scrambled and a shield protects it. And in case her shield jumps, she still has another process that automatically redirects to a fake IP address. And if the fake IP address is detected, it has programmed a virus that infects any other computer wanting to access its real IP address.  
  
In this kind of situation, Pidge feels like a queen with power at your fingertips. She thinks she should work with the FBI or that kind of secretive organization when she’s grown up. But since Matt was accepted into the Garrison Galaxy, her decision was made immediately : she was going to work hard to catch up with him and to be able to enter the Garrison. She was going to become a pilot. Like her brother.  
  
Once her job is done, the hacker disconnects from all over, turns off the computer and carefully arranges it in her backpack. She goes around the shelves a little bit so as not to go out immediately, picks up a children’s book where a moon and stars are drawn on the cover, and goes to the manager. Once her loan is registered, she leaves the library and returns home.

* * *

Her little game lasts peacefully.

Of course, she still goes to the few lessons that she considers the most important. For others, she studies them at the media library alone and independently.

Even if it’s itching her to correct the teacher because she made a mistake in her statement, she speaks as little as possible. In this way, she manages to diminish a little bit the unpleasant comments and the glare looks of others.

She is also careful to participate in controls and evaluations. As always, the top of her leaves are decorated with the maximum note surrounded in red, and she pretends not to hear the jealous mumbles around her. But sometimes teachers change their curriculum and put their tests on the day Pidge is away. Sometimes the teachers are indulgent and let her catch up on her duty. Sometimes they just refuse. In these cases, the brunette asks her neighbor if she can take a look at her copy.

"If you want, but that’s not going to raise your average.” She replies, handing her the sheet, before grumbling a “Not that you need it, anyway…”

Pidge acts as if she hasn’t heard anything, picks up the paper, studies the questions for a solid minute and returns it to her owner thanking her. In the afternoon, she goes to the media library. She pulls out a large blank sheet of paper, bends over the table, and copies what she has memorized on her classmate’s copy. She answers all the questions correctly, changes her blue pen to a red pen, changes her hand to avoid recognizing her writing, makes small “v” beside all her answers, writes the number 100 followed by a “Excellent !” at the top of the page, and smiles proudly as she watches her work finish. In this way, she could present the copies of the missed checks to her parents without any problem.

When she comes to attend a class but she doesn’t want to follow the next because she knows that remarks on it will fuse -still in all discretion of course, she takes it as an hour free. In the meantime, she goes to the school library to studies the lesson, sitting silently at a table. And when she is fed up with it because she is moving too fast for her taste, she settles into one of the chairs and reads a borrowed novel quietly.

And when the teacher then asks her why she wasn’t there, Pidge replies that she didn’t feel well-well, her badly digested lunch, and that she was in the infirmary. The teacher simply nods and begins his lesson without a further remark to her.

* * *

One night, as Pidge thinks about the stunt of her three classmates, an idea settles in her mind. This idea runs through her mind for two whole days. Her idea ends up blooming on the third day. Thanks to her intelligence, Pidge quickly identifies the advantages and disadvantages. And luck for the brunette, there is definitely more positive than negative.

Her strategy is simple : to hack (again) the school system to program and trigger the fire alarm at the same time the automatic sprinklers while the students and teachers are still in the building.

She calls her plan : “Watering Humans”

She’s proud of this name she has found because it looks like the name of a machiavellian plan of a villain who could be in her video games or action-adventure books. And secondarily, because the name also echoed what had been done to her by her classmates in the bathroom.

As always, Pidge is confident.

First, she blurs, remotely, surveillance cameras that are around the school.

Then she closes her pc, quickly pulls her green hood over her head, and sprints grazing the ground, her back bent.

She leans against the wall of the establishment, crouches, then she opens her computer again on her lap.

She quickly plays on her keyboard and several windows open successively on the screen.

Once she has the program she wants in front of her, she takes a quick breath and presses her index finger on one of her white keys.

Two seconds later, she hears the fire alarm go off, followed by all the screams of the students as well as the rales of adults on the other side of the middle school precinct.

In her ears, it sounds like a sweet melody.

And Pidge doesn’t regret anything.

* * *

For three months now, Pidge has been enjoying her new routine.  
  
Her plan goes perfectly well and she can not dream better. Nobody suspects anything. She feels that the bullying she receives at school has drastically diminished, and she even has time to play video games with Matt or observe the stars with her telescope.  
  
But of course, the dream must end at one time or another.  
  
Because a week and a half later, everything collapses :  
  
Pidge returns home after her day at the city’s media library and goes to see her parents in the living room. But when she enters the room, she freezes on the spot. Her two amber orbs widen and she remains speechless.  
  
Because there’s the director of her middle school who is there. In her living room. Sitting in an armchair, the elbow resting against the armrest, the cheek against her fist and legs crossed, as if she dominated the scene.  
  
“Hello, Katie.” She greets her in a dry nod.  
  
The brunette blinks and returns to reality. Still too stunned, she didn’t return her greetings and turned her attention to her parents who were nearby. They are both sitting on the couch. They look at her seriously but she can detect a glimmer of apprehension in their eyes.  
  
Uh-oh.

It doesn’t smell good. If the director of the school is here, there is a good reason. And Pidge already knows the answer to this question : One of her confidence tricks has been discovered.

The excuses of her strange absences, her fraud by hacking the school’s database, or her "Watering Humans” plan ?

Or maybe even the three ?, blowed a part of her mind.

Her blood make only one round to this hypothesis. Her mouth remains semi-open and her brain trembles with incomprehension. What had happened ? Her plans were perfect, they had no flaws. She had acted prudently, as always. How could they have been discovered ?

She runs her gray cells at full speed in the hope of finding something she might have done wrong. But nothing comes to mind. She’s certain to have done everything perfectly.

She's lost.

The director feels it, since she silently gives her a helping hand. She lowers her eyes on the rectangular bag stuck between the fold of the armchair and her thigh. She takes out a small electronic tablet, turns it on, and turns it so that the screen is in front of her and her parents.

“Do you want to watch this video, Katie ?” She asks her.

The Principale doesn’t wait for her answer. She clicks the play icon with her index and the full-screen video starts.

The hacker actually realizes that, when setting up her plan, there was a surveillance camera independent of those of the middle school she hadn’t spotted (hidden well in height between the trunk of a tree and one of his branches) and who had filmed everything : her hacking a few meters from the building to disable the cameras to hack to trigger the alarm and automatic sprinklers.

On the video, it’s her face that we see. She’s at the foot of a tree and strokes the keys on her keyboard. She closes her pc, then we see then puting her green hood with a dry gesture on her head and cover her face. She runs quickly curving her back, slams herself against the wall of the establishment, squats to re-open her computer on her lap, moves her hands on her keyboard, and the fire siren goes on a second later, followed immediately by howls.

The video is cut, and a silence as thick as fog invades the room. Pidge swears she can cut it with a knife. But this is not the time for the metaphors since three pairs of eyes are turning to her with serious air. She swallows hoping to remove the brick that has settled inside her stomach, and prepares for the remonstrances.

It’s her mother’s firm voice that breaks the silence first.

“Can you explain, Katie ?”

“Why did you do that ?” Continue her father in a slightly softer tone.

But a few seconds pass and the director takes the floor to lay it on thick.

“It was total panic. Some students thought that there was really a fire in the school and a wave of dread to overwhelm everyone. In addition to that, our papers and our computer tools have been soaked. The firefighters were called and in the end, they came for nothing. Do you surrender the gravity of your act ?”  
  
Good, think Pidge sincerely. Okay, she felt a little guilty for the firefighters because she didn’t expect them to move for a simple fire alarm in a middle school, but apart from that little complication, she had what she wanted.  
  
Misson "Watering Humans” : Success.  
  
Pidge’s mental celebration soon ends when the principal’s voice rises again in the air.

“You know, I don’t want to scare you, but a case like this can go to the police station and a case may come up against you in spite of your age. And it can also affect your professional career.” She informs him in a neutral tone.  
  
Her poor attempt at intimidation doesn’t impress the brunette. On the contrary, it revolts her much more than anything else. She clenched her fists at the same time as her eyebrows. She’s frustrated to be accused of her mistakes while this is only a small revenge for all that her classmates had done to her. But of course, to them, they are never told anything.  
  
"It’s not me that’s started !” Exclaims Pidge, ignoring the sound of an immature little girl at that moment. "They’re all asked for it ! I did nothing wrong !” She insists.  
  
"What do you mean, Katie ?” Sam asks, confused but with a kind voice.  
  
And, since it is her dad who asks her, the brunette can not refuse.

She has always felt very connected with her father. Not that she’s not close to her mother or she doesn’t support her, no. On the contrary, Colleen is very understanding and encourages her daughter to exploit the full potential of her intelligence.  
  
It’s just that her dad is a Commander at the Galactic Garrison. His stories are all more interesting than others. Each anecdote fascinates Pidge. He tells her words of hope that inspires her enormously, and she always imagines she’s going through a lot of adventures in space when she also becomes a fighter pilot.  
  
"Katie ?” Her mother gently calls, tilting her head to the side.  
  
The concerned flutters eyes and goes back down to Earth.  
  
"Oh, uh… I…” She stammers, lowering her eyes.  
  
But Pidge pinches her lips. She doesn’t want to admit what she has experienced. Because for her, it’s an admission of weakness. And the Holt family is anything but weak.

When the adults see that she’s not going to answer them so soon, they glance at each other in the hope of finding an answer in the eyes of the other. At that moment, the Principale clears her throat. Hands clasped on her lap, her tablet disappeared, she allows herself to speak to regain the thread of the conversation.  
  
"And that’s not all : We’ve noticed that your absences have been hovering a lot lately. On all your schedule, you come to class only for 10 hours in the week. Against 35 hours in total, you understand that it doesn’t do much.”  
  
“Even if I don’t participate in all subjects, I’m always present during the tests. That’s all that matters for my trimester.” Asserts the genius.

“Maybe. But we are concerned about the consequences that such an absence could have on your school record. You’re a brilliant student, Katie, it would be a shame to see your grades drop now.”  
  
“Even with my absences, my grades are at the top in the class, you can check.” Pidge answered, in a calm and confident voice.  
  
"We have checked and you’re right. But what bothers me is why you skip up the lessons so much ? And where are you going if you’re not in school ?”  
  
Her mother then takes the torch, her wrist tight against her chest.

"We’re worried, darling. Is there… a boy ? Do you hang out with him ?”  
  
"What ?!” Pidge exclaims with a start.  
  
Her heart is accelerating and she can’t believe her ears. But after the fact, this is one of the most logical topics that would come to the mind of parents when their 15-year-old girl often disappears without them knowing. So it’s not so surprising.  
  
"It would explain her strange absences and where she is if she’s not in school.” Pursued the director, chin stuck between fingers.  
  
In the midst of the murmured theories of her parents and the Principal, Pidge crackles.  
  
“No !! It’s not a boy !” She says loudly, clenched fists.  
  
"But if it’s not a boy, then… Katie, do you… take drugs ?” Asks her dad, who clearly didn’t want to believe at this assumption.  
  
“Even less !!” She shouts, shaking her fists.  
  
She sighs and growls while rubbing her face. Neverminde for the weakness she didn’t want to show. It’s getting really ridiculous. Eyes on her carpet, she takes a breath and starts before regretting her decision.

"When I don’t go to middle school, I go to the media library of the city. It’s a lot less toxic there. I am considered a genius for my age, but that doesn’t mean that my school life is peaceful. I’m not going to draw you a picture of the kind of bullshit that other do or say to the gifted people like me. So I preferred to isolate myself to study alone. At the media library, I progressed as I wished without being insulted. I could even expand my knowledge without being laughed at. I felt really comfortable there. And yes, I admit that I have skiped the lessons so as not to be left with my stupid classmates. I admit that I falsified my absences with bogus excuses. And I also admit that I turned on the automatic sprinklers by pure revenge but I had a good reason.”

She raises her eyes and meets the wide-eyed of her parents. Obviously. They are shocked but not very surprised either. After all, Matt himself was harassed by being younger, so they must understand why she was sidelined herself this way.

“Do you remember the day I came home from school with my wet bag and all my books soaked ? I hadn’t dropped my backpack in a fountain as I told you when you noticed hours later. It was students who had taken my bag to empty and flood all my stuff…”

“But… why didn’t you react ?!” The governess wondered, incredulous.

“Ha !” Pidge laugh with a cheeky looks. “Easy to say that : they locked me in the toilet ! Impossible to get out ! And even if I physically defended myself once outside, it would inevitably fall down on me ! The proof ; I defended myself _peacefully_ , and I have the right to the visit of the Director of the school who threatens to call the police, just that !”

“Because you hacked into the middle school’s technically inviolable system and intentionally triggered the fire alarm and automatic sprinklers. It’s called a premeditated act and you could be severely punished for that, young girl…!” Hisses the principal with annoyed brows.

Wow. Said this way, Pidge can’t help but feel a bubble of pride swell in her chest. She’s sure that, in spite of the director’s serious and professional tone, the adult must be shocked that a 15-year-old teenager was able to build such a amazing plan and get through their protection as if it were only a simple formality.

“Katie…” Her mother suddenly growls, bored.

The brunette arched a questioning eyebrow at her.

“At least, you might be kind enough to look more guilty. And please, take that smile off your face.” She said, irritated.

Pidge automatically raises her hand on her face. Oops. She didn’t even feel her lips roll up…

The Principal is rubbing her forehead, as if this conversation gives her a headache, and sighs handsomely before continuing to speak.  
  
“To come back to your concerns of harassment, you could at least have talked to one of your teachers.” She reproaches.  
  
At this simple sentence, the anger is bubbling again inside Pidge, who is still clenching her fists along her body, and clenching her jaw.  
  
“I’m sure they would have -…”  
  
“Sorry to disappoint your trust in your employees, but the teachers saw what others were doing to me and they didn’t move ! So frankly, instead of going to visit the right people, you should be a little more careful about what is going on inside your own school, _Madam Director_ !” She spat harshly.  
  
Then Pidge ran off.

She rushes up the stairs and slams the door of her room. She swings her backpack like an old sock, throws herself on her bed, her head in her cushion, and does her best to swallow her tears.  
  
Pidge hears the muffled voices of her parents, that of the headmistress, then the front door close, sign that she was finally gone. She sighs, rolls on her back, and takes her pillow between her arms as a sign of comfort.  
  
When she hears the door of her room open and the anxious tone of her parents, she immediately raises her big cushion in the face. She had no desire to see a glimmer of disappointment shine in their eyes.  
  
She feels them approaching slowly. The smell of her dad’s cologne tickles her nostrils, a sign that he is next to her. She then feels a heavy weight on her mattress, near her feet, and flinches when a graceful hand touches one of her ankles.  
  
"Katie…” her mother calls softly.

She buzzes to signal that she has heard, and Colleen continues on her way.  
  
“We understand your actions and we think you did very well there…”  
  
But…?

“…But we think you should have talked about it right away. Maybe not to the teachers since they were pretending to see nothing, but you could have gone higher, go straight to see the assistant director. She would have intervened and the management would have taken necessary measures.” Her father finished.  
  
Pidge sighs in her pillow. She doesn’t even have the strength to argue anymore. Although she’s sincerely grateful to them because they are on her side, she just wants to be quiet. But obviously, they are not ready to leave her room until the problem is solved.  
  
“But you could tell us about it too. We are your parents, and you know very well that we will do absolutely everything for you and Matt.” Sam gently reminds her.  
  
"I know…” she mumbles lazily with a muffled voice in her pillow.

A silence settles between them, and her mother caresses her ankle gently in order to appease her. It works gradually and she feels her muscles relax as and when.  
  
"We can change your school, if you want.” Offers Colleen encouragingly.  
  
This is probably the best option. Pidge knows that very well too. But she cann’t shake that feeling of cowardice and weakness that itches if she agrees to change institutions.  
  
"I don’t know…” She answers.  
  
“And then, if you leave this school, I’m sure those who hurt you will become aware of it.” Reached her dad.  
  
“I highly doubt it.” Sniggered the schoolgirl.  
  
“Sometimes it’s enough for a student to suddenly change school so that young people of that age can question themselves.” Arguments her mother.  
  
"It’s not a shame, you know ?” Adds her father.  
  
A half-minute elapsed in silence, and Pidge spoke again after fixing the ceiling of her room, as if the answer were written there.  
  
"Okay…” She says simply.

“Good. I’m proud of you, Katie.” Congratulates Sam.  
  
Then her dad bends over to kiss her hair and her mother strokes her leg again with a soothing gesture.  
  
That’s when the front door slams and a “I’m home“ weakened is heard. Matt. A barking sounded followed by clattering of paws on the floor, and she perceived the muffled voice of her older brother, who certainly spoke to the dog by caressing him.  
  
“Mom ? Dad ?” He calls, looking for them clearly in the rooms on the ground floor.  
  
"We are upstairs, honey !” Her mother answers, raising her voice.  
  
His steps make the wooden steps creak. When he sees his parents in his little sister’s room, at her bedside, and the brunette lying with a cushion hug, he arches a questioning eyebrow.  
  
"What’s happening ? Pidge had her period ?” He asks before taking a pillow in his head.  
  
Colleen sketches a brief amused smile at her son’s hypothesis.  
  
"Katie is just going to change school.” She answers as she gets up from her daughter’s bed.

Then she shares a look with her husband, who joins her without a word, and the two adults leave the room, taking care to close the door behind them.

Gaping, Matt blinks, clearly confused. But after the surprise, he understands right away. He automatically squeezes his teeth and looks at his sister’s bedrest.

"Who hurt you ?” He demands, banging his fist against his palm. “I’m going to detroy them.”

His fraternal protection pull off a small laugh at Pidge, who turns her head to the side to look at him, her hands now resting on her belly since she had no pillow. A smile stretches the corner of her lips, and she can’t help but tease him.

“With your flabby arms that look like spaghetti ?”

“If you hit hard, spaghetti can hurt.” He said, before extending his arm and swiftly shot him vertically. “Like a whiplash, "Woosh” ! And if add the Bolognese and more, it would make “Vlam”, like that !“

The antics of Matt make her laugh again and she feels much lighter than half an hour ago.

* * *

At the end of the week, Pidge is transferred from school without saying a word of information or farewell to her classmates. In her new middle school, no one mistreats her or insults her. She feels at peace but doesn’t make friends.  
  
Two months later, she learns of the disappearance of Matt and her dad during their Kerberos mission. She’s closing herself even more on herself.  
  
A year later, she finds herself at the Galactic Garrison, in the orange and white uniform worn by the cadets.  
  
She has her hair cut, a new identity, and a specific goal in mind.  
  
Again, it’s a new school setting where she has the opportunity to bond with others. But she does not have time to make friends. She has other priorities : find clues about the disappearance of her brother and her father.

**Author's Note:**

> Mention to Plance shippers ; did you found out my easter egg about our famous catchphrase ? ;)


End file.
